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I grew up in Malahide in North County Dublin with a brother and sister, my Dad was from Dungarvan and he moved up to Dublin to work in the Teagasc Research Center as a horticulturist and I think he spent the first ten years waiting for a transfer back down to Dungarvan but never got it and my mom was from just outside New Ross from a little town called Campile. So my memories of holidays as kids was us being put in the car to go down to Wexford or Waterford while a lot of my friends parents worked for Aer Lingus so they got free flights to Florida or where ever while we got free mushrooms! Looking back now though I have very fond memories of my granny’s old farm house which is still there.

Family life..

This is an excerpt from an interview Conor Faughnan did with Dermot Bannon as part of the SeniorTimes podcast Series. To listen to the full interview, or to any of the now over 100 episodes of the SeniorTimes Podcast Series go to www.seniortimes.ie

Conor Faughnan sat down with Dermot Bannon, unquestionably the leading Irish voice in modern architectural design

‘I love having it in the head, then seeing it being made’

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Because of what I do, every time I go into the radio people ask me about the housing crisis and the problem is , in Ireland we don't build a variety of houses here so if you go to Berlin or Denmark you'll get one bed apartments two bed apartments, three bed apartments or houses but they will all be built within spitting distance of each other. But, we, in Ireland build an ocean of one bed apartments or 3 bed semi’s.

His involvement in AVA Housing - a new scheme that allows older people to stay in their homes

12 Senior Times l January - February 2022 l www.seniortimes.ie

Room to Improve really came into its own when we were given an hour slot which enabled us to show the quantity surveying side of things for example and homeowners were much more invested in the project and once RTE saw the result we were given a Sunday night slot and that was the making of the programme – and now we are on series 14.

But in some ways I was lucky as people were stuck with negative equity and they couldn't move out of their homes so families were in homes that they thought were going to be starter homes, back then people bought themselves houses every 20 minutes. So in the early days I was doing small jobs around the country and had Room to Improve to pay the mortgage.

it was all finished I went oh, I'll never do that again. But RTE persuaded me to do another series and after 2 years of presenting and working part time I decided to set up my own practice and carry on with the programme – that was in October 2008, right at the start of the housing crash.

So I rang up and got an interview and then a screen test and I thought nothing’s going to happen. But I got the phone call to say I got the job so I just had to ask for some time off from my job to go and film and when

There were only 2 Colleges where you could study architecture in Ireland at that time, Bolton Street and UCD, so points were very high. So I got my degree in the UK and was practicing 10 years for a firm here on big projects like Blanchardstown Shopping Centre and then RTE did a programme called House Hunters which was like the Irish version of Location, Location, Location presented by Roisin Murphy and Liz O’Kane and when Roisin left to have her baby the RIAI advertised for a presenter.

Early career

I suppose it's a drug and I actually like when things go wrong. Like, you know people who love Suduko and people who love crosswords, when something isn't quite working out and you need to solve it like a puzzle and you hold on a second and say what happens if we reduce the depth of that or pull that apart by 10 millimeters then lower it - I love that.

I loved playing with Lego, I love drawing, painting, I loved making things. I love having something in the head, putting that on paper then seeing it being made and adjusting it, tweaking it because you'll see things when they become three dimensional and then the final results are very satisfying.

On where his love of architecture comes from..

Dermot Bannon, Ciarán Ferrie and Michelle Moore, all Directors with AVA Housing with home owner Eileen

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